Pure Drop — Restaurant in England

Good morning,

It is with regret that I feel the need to complain regarding yesterday's visit to the Pure Drop in Ferndown.

For a family occasion I booked a table for eight at 130 yesterday. The online booking process is easy and efficient to use.

We arrived just before 130 and on arrival I announced our party to the bar staff, explained that there would only be six dinners, and we were pointed to a table reserved within the restaurant.

Having decided on our order, around 10 minutes elapsed with no contact from anyone so I approached the bar again to enquire whether we needed to order at the bar or whether our order would be taken at the table. I was told that someone would be over and quite quickly a lady came and took our drinks and food order. The drinks were served quite promptly.

However, we had a long wait for our food order. Despite a number of staff passing our table and looking over, we were seated next to the kitchen exit, no food appeared and no-one spoke to us to explain if there was an issue. At just after 230, my mother approached the bar and politely asked when our food may be coming. A lady said that she would go and enquire, and then went into the kitchen. She did not return with an update.

Approximately 10 minutes later the food began to arrive. Four of the meals were served, whilst the two roast beef meals did not appear. The gentlemen clearing tables noticed this and said that they would be out shortly. It took 10 minutes for these two meals to arrive by which time our party had already started their meals. No reason or apology was given for the delay. The food was only average if honest, certainly not worth a wait of well over an hour since ordering. The hunters chicken was over cooked and dry. Both roast dinners had cold brussels sprouts.

We were asked during the meal if everything was okay with our meal, which we did not reply to having obviously waited so long for the food. Needless to say we did not stay to order desserts or coffees.

When I went to pay, I asked the manager why we had waited so long for our food to be served and was told it was because they were busy. There was no apology. I then asked why if we had waited over an hour for the food to come out, why did they not bring all of the food together, and did she think that there was any sense to serving four meals and then making two dinners wait a further ten minutes? Why not just serve them all together? She did not reply other than again stating that they were busy, as if that was our fault. There was clearly no concern at the delay and I was obviously unimpressed with the service. Unprompted, she took 10% off of the total bill price. Whilst this gesture was appreciated, it was not asked for and was done with no apology or concern, just a matter of fact discount to appease a customer complaint, something that appeared to be a standard response.

Please understand, that when booking a table at the Pure Drop, I am under no illusions that I should be receiving a fine dining experience. This is a budget pub/restaurant, however that should not excuse the poor service, extreme delay in receiving the food, lack of any concern at both the delay and the subsequent complaint, and the mixed standard food eventually served.

In a hospitality industry already under extreme pressure post pandemic and with the current economic impact, focusing on getting right what you do should be a given. I would appreciate your feedback.

Kind...

This review is based on our Christmas day experience. I will start with the positives. We had a great table. I asked for disabled friendly. The waiting staff we're friendly & doing their best.

We booked & paid upfront. Over £50 per person for a 3 course Christmas lunch. Our sitting was a 2hr slot. Arrive at 1.30 leave by 3.30. I have just had surgery so that suited.

We arrived on time. Our drinks order taken. And delivered. Then waited..& waited for 50 minutes for any food to arrive. We had already used 1 hr of our allocated time. I had mushroom soup. It was fine my husband had Duck terrine. That wasn't nice, I tried it.

Then we waited another 45 minutes for our 2nd course. When that arrived we all had different amounts of items of food. Some had 4 slices of turkey some 2 & and no the 2 weren't thicker slices. Same with roast potatoes. Small. Under cooked, barely roasted. It was bland. The only way to eat it was smothered in gravy and cranberry sauce. All the tables of people we're groaning & complaining.

At no point did any management come and talk to us to explain anything. A simple, I'm sorry for the wait but our chef is doing his/hers best. Nobody minds wait for excellent food. But waiting for below average is so disappointing.

It is now 3.45 & the next sitting of people are waiting One of the bar staff was crying. It was all starting to fall apart.

I had only booked because it was 2 hrs slot. I expected to have eaten my 3 courses & to have left by now. I was very uncomfortable due to my surgery & sitting there any longer wasn't possible. My husband drove me home. Then had to go back to eat his dessert and take the rest of his family home. All very inconvenient.

He said his dessert was stodgy. Over powered with cherry flavours. Luckily I ordered cheese and biscuits. Difficult to get wrong. Which was boxed up for me & I ate it at home.

There was nothing special about the day. No music/Christmas Carol's. Only the King's speech played. Nobody listened. We all got Christmas crackers but because they cheap 50%had the same joke in🤣

Sorry we won't be booking...

We wanted to try somewhere other than our usual haunts - Curlew, Angel, Horns, Bear Cross. Checked the menus & read the reviews & all seemed good. Went online to book the table, all good except found it odd that you have to select a duration time for your meal. Friday evening. Arrived at the pub. A sign at the door says wait to be seated. Waited for 5 mins & ignored until a barman shouted over to just go & sit where you like. Went to a table. All of the chairs were grubby with food stains & had to swap one of them as it was so badly stained & the foam was poking out through a hole in the fabric. The window by the table was dirty, as was the window sill & the radiator by the table had rust showing through flaking paint. If I hadn't been with my elderly parents for a celebratory meal I would have left at this point. Alisha was our waitress (predominantly) & she was friendly & efficient, as were the other staff. The food was average with 3 of our 4 meals being disappointing. The Hunter's chicken had only a teaspoon of sauce (not smothered) & thus was dry. The lasagne was only just hot enough & was bizarrely served in an old enamel dish. The steak was undercooked & 50% was inedible, being full of fat & gristle. If 1 dish had have been inadequate we would have complained but as 3 were we felt too embarrassed to. The desserts faired slightly better although the banoffee chocolate tart had no taste of banana & the custard portion for the apple crumble was stingy. The prices were reasonable - another reason we accepted the poor quality. We joked that in comparison Weatherspoons up the road might have been better. You get what you pay for! The pub layout was good, liked the outdoors seating & the atmosphere was relaxed & friendly. The bar was busy but the restaurant not so. Seemed more geared up to the workers from the industrial estate stopping for a drink on the way home. Overall impression, disappointing food & won't bother again. ...